Title: Warmth

Paring: Bruce Banner X Reader

Warnings: showers, non-sexual nudity, angst/fluff 

Spoilers: NOPE THAT MOVIE?? IT DON'T EXIST HUNNY!!

Requested By: snowy153 

Author's Note: Just a little fic, only around 1k. I'm going overseas in six days and I'm trying to fit in as much writing as I can before I go but I'm only human, so please understand the slow updates. Also, I'll be without proper internet when I'm overseas for a month, so expect me back sometime in August. Love you all, my Readers, and enjoy this fic X

_______________________________________________________________________________

To say that Bruce Banner was the love of your life would be entirely accurate. He was humble, courageous, wildly intelligent, and quietly romantic in ways in which made your heart beat just so. Except, there was a tiny part in your brain which loved hot showers more than the man who became the Hulk.

Especially, because you were nigh freezing, and he had been in the bathroom for the last hour.

It was summer back home, but you were not at home, but an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in Australia after a mission fighting a very confused child. Her abilities were causing destruction to the area around her, and, if the team hadn't stepped in, to herself. It hadn't been easy – she kept falling through the ground and disappearing in strange ways whenever she would be afraid, and when you had finally got through to the poor darling, S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened.

You kept yourself quiet when she had been cuffed, trying to reassure her she wasn't bad. But, she was a seven-year-old girl who had been poisoned by an epidemic releasing a sort of crystal into the world's water, and she didn't know what was happening to her, or would happen to her.

You just wished that Tony Stark had had the common decency to call that magic guy he always left on voicemail. The struggle to contain the girl would have ended five minutes before it began – no fuss, no stress. But Tony Stark had a habit of relying on what he had on hand, whenever he could, and yet, an archer, a spy, a Hulk, a super soldier, and the Iron Man was no match for the girl who woke up one day and realised her body could go wherever it wanted.

You were still getting used to the fact that you, an ex-air force pilot, had gained the ability of something called 'psychokinesis', even if it has been over two years. You were called up by Ms Hill forty-eight hours after you accidently broke the entire china cabinet in a Goodwill store, and after that, you were soon an Avenger.

The lady at Goodwill called you a menace as you paid her the fifty-five dollars to cover the damage. The people of New York called you a hero.

You called yourself cold.

Dropping the standard blanket that came with every room to the bed, you rush to the bathroom, and when the doorhandle under your hand unlocks, you barged in.

"Aaah!" Bruce shouted, from the shower.

He'd been in so long, that the mirror and the glass panels were fogged up that you couldn't see much of him. But, in here, it was so much warmer, and you clambered to the toilet, and sat upon the lid.

"What are you doing?" He asked, this time with less panic in his voice. "Didn't I tell you I was showering?"

You harrumph with a shiver, "Yeah, like an hour ago!" you protest. "I'm cold."

He shuts the water off. "Has it really been that long?" He says and grabs the towel that's slung over the top of the shower wall. You've only been dating Bruce for three years, and yes, it's been a mixture of highs and lows, but he still shows modesty with his body after all this time. It's cute. "Sorry."

When you look up, he's padding toward you on the tile floor, wrist outstretched. You lean your forehead onto his skin and smile when he feels your temperature. But he looks nothing more than horrified – and even though you're sitting on the commode like it's a chair and he's in a beige bath towel, he gathers you into his arms, and holds you close.

"Are you okay?" you ask your boyfriend after a while.

He sighs. "She was afraid of me."

You know what he means. The mission. It had been fine until one of Clint's trick arrows had gone off near her, and then she was harder to catch than moonlight in a man's fingers. That was when it was decidedly time for the Hulk to make an appearance; more as a tactic to round her up. But perhaps, it made it even worse.

"You can't help what other people feel," you whisper, pulling Bruce closer. "and, she's a kid, too. And, Australian. They never have superhero shenanigans down under, and you're the Hulk."

He laughs a little at that. "I know a few superheroes from here, Gateway, Slipstream..."

You shake your head and stand up from the toilet seat lid. "That's beside the point, Bruce." You whisper, looking into his eyes. "She's a kid. That Spiderling hero from Queens was afraid of you too, remember? Now you work together on science-y things all the time!" You place your forehead upon his, and add, softly, "One day, when that girl grows up, or into her abilities, she'll recognise you for what you did today, and not for what the Other Guy is known for."

He lets out a breath, perhaps of relief. "You think so?"

You quirk a brow. "Bruce, I'm an ex-pilot, your girlfriend, someone who can move things without touching them, and very cold." You say in a different tone, a heavy layer of sarcasm, "No, I don't mean it, I'm just saying what I can to get in the damn shower."

Bruce can't help but chuckle as he takes your spot on the toilet lid. He watches as you use your abilities to undress as quick as you can and turn the shower on warm enough to soothe your icy problems.

"Ah!" you practically moan, turning the hot tap on more. "Bliss."

"Oh, _________," he laughs, shaking his head. The water in his curls flies everywhere, and you can't help but laugh along him. He gathers his towel that's around him, and walking from the bathroom, you hear Bruce call out to you, "I love you!"

"I love you too!" you reply. "and, hot showers!"